:  Necessity  of  Original 
Photoplay  Material 

iy  COL.  JASPER  EWING  BRADY 


The  Necessity  of  Original 
Photoplay  Material 


COL.  JASPER  EWING  BRADY 


One  of  a  Series  of  Lectures  Especially 

Prepared  for  Student-Members 

of  The  'Palmer  Tlan 


PALMER  PHOTOPLAY  CORPORATION 

DEPARTMENT  OF  EDUCATION 
LOS  ANGELES,  CALIFORNIA 


C.tf)right,TQ20,Palmtr  Phtttflaj  Ctrptralitn,  Lu  jtngtltt,C*llj»rni* 
All  Rlghtt  Ristr-utd 


COL.  JASPER  EWING  BRADY 

COLONEL  JASPER  EWING  BRADY  spent  fourteen  years  as  a  commis- 
sioned officer  in  the  United  States  Army,  and  later  served  as  Lieutenant- 
Colonel  of-  the  Thirty-second  Regiment,  National  Guard  of  New  York 
State,  before  entering  upon  his  screen  career.    The  army  title  has  been  difficult 
to  shake  off,  and  Mr.  Brady  is  affectionately  known  as  "the  Colonel"  to  his 
many  friends  and  associates. 

Colonel  Brady  began  his  photoplay  work  in  the  Vitagraph  Company,  and 
enjoyed  a  long  and  pleasant  association  with  that  organization.  Later  he 
acted  as  managing  editor  of  the  scenario  department  for  the  Universal  Film 
Manufacturing  Company  in  both  the  New  York  and  Pacific  Coast  studios.  At 
the  present  time  he  is  head  of  the  scenario  department  for  Metro  in  New  York 
City. 

It  is  safe  to  say  that  no  one  connected  with  the  photoplay  profession  has 
had  more  intensive  experience  in  the  selection  and  purchase  of  screen  stories 
than  Colonel  Brady.  A  hard  worker,  early  and  late,  and  a  careful  and  rapid 
reader,  he  is  capable  of  handling  an  amount  of  material  that  would  frighten 
the  average  reader  with  its  bulk.  In  spite  of  this  he  has  repeatedly  proven 
that  his  judgment  is  accurate,  and  his  choice  of  screen  material  has  been  pro- 
ductive of  the  most  satisfactory  results.  In  addition  to  these  capabilities, 
Colonel  Brady  is  a  writer  of  many  successful  scenarios,  including  "THE  ISLAND 
OF  REGENERATION,"  "THE  ISLAND  OF  SURPRISE,"  "SURPRISES  OF  AN  EMPTY 
HOTEL,"  "LITTLE  ANGEL  OF  CANON  CREEK,"  "HERO  OF  SUBMARINE  D-2,"  and 
many  others. 


SRLF 


o 


FOR  many  years  one  of  the  standard  monthly  maga- 
zines of  the  United  States  has  conducted  a  department 
of  editorial   comment  under  the  caption  of  "The 
Editor's  Easy  Chair."    This  is  an  exceedingly  appropriate 
and  well-chosen  line,  but  it  would  never,  never  do  in  con- 
nection with  a  scenario  editor,  for  he  invariably  sits  in  one 
of  the  uneasiest  chairs  that  may  be  imagined.    The  title, 
"Scenario  Editor,"  is  not  entirely  satisfactory,  but  it  seems 
to  have  become  permanent  and  authentic  through  common 
usage. 

2.  I  believe  I  am  reasonably  qualified  to  judge  the 
uneasiness  of  the  scenario  editor's  position,  for  I  have  been 
reading,  considering,  recommending,  rejecting  and  having 
to  do  with  the  final  purchase  of  screen  stories,  as  well  as 
writing  original  photoplays,  with  various  large  motion- 
picture  producing  organizations  for  many  years.    It  seems 
to  be  natural  for  every  man  to  emphasize  the  difficulties 
of  his  own  job  in  life,  yet  I  believe  I  may  readily  and  log- 
ically prove  why  the  individual  upon  whom  rests  the 
responsibility  for  buying  screen  plays  labors  under  one  of 
the  heaviest  burdens  in  the  entire  series  of  co-ordinated 
activities  necessary  to  the  completion  of  a  motion-picture 
production. 

3.  The  life  of  a  motion  picture  may  be  divided  into 
five  parts,  as  follows : 

Creation Author 

Selection. Scenario  editor 

Studio  staff,  inclusive  of  continuity 


Production. 


writer,  director,  cameraman, 
actors,  etc.,  etc. 

Distribution Film  rental  and  booking  agency 

Exhibition .  .  Theater  and  audience 


4.  The  production,  distribution,  and  exhibition  of  pic- 
tures may  be  looked  upon  as  one  unit  in  a  general  way,  and 
the  creation  of  the  story  as  another.  Between  these  two 
sits  the  unit  of  selection — the  scenario  editor,  in  his  uneasy 
chair.  In  all  fairness,  do  you  wonder  that  it  is  an  uneasy 
position?  On  one  hand  is  a  multitude  of  millions  of 
motion-picture  theater-goers  discussing  the  pictures  of  yes- 
terday, watching  those  of  today,  and  eagerly  clamoring  for 
those  of  tomorrow.  Day  after  day  this  multitude  occupies 
theaters  in  which  millions  of  dollars  have  been  invested, 
and  in  connection  with  which  millions  more  are  being 
spent  in  service  and  advertising.  In  close  relation  to  the 
exhibitors  are  the  distributing  agencies  scattered  among 
all  the  cities  of  the  civilized  world,  and  constantly  de- 
manding their  weekly  supplies  of  new  films  to  pass  on  to 
the  exhibitors  and  their  audiences.  In  each  studio  with 
which  a  scenario  editor  is  associated  we  find  a  group  of 
directors  and  stars,  all  receiving  high  salaries. 

5.  Working  in  co-operation  with  these  directors  and 
stars  is  a  small  army  of  staff  continuity  writers,  actors, 
cinematographers,  scenic  artists  and  innumerable  other 
specialized  craftsmen,  all  busy  with  the  intricate  process 
of  motion-picture  production.  When  one  film  is  com- 
pleted, another  must  be  begun,  else  there  will  be  a  term 
during  which  production  ceases,  while  the  enormous  pay- 
roll and  overhead  expense  goes  on.  Not  only  this,  but  if 
production  is  delayed  the  producer  is  unable  to  live  up 
to  his  contract  with  the  distributors,  to  whom  he  must 
supply  a  certain  number  of  films  within  a  given  time.  If 
the  distributors'  supply  is  cut  short,  the  exhibitor  finds 
himself  with  a  theater  filled  with  people,  but  no  pictures 
to  exhibit.  Thus  the  business  machinery  of  producing, 
distributing  and  exhibiting  pictures  must  move  smoothly, 
without  a  single  slip  in  any  cog  or  gear. 

4 


6.  The  tremendous  importance  of  this  may  be  realized 
when  we  contemplate  the  fact  that  the  making  and  show- 
ing of  motion  pictures  is  now  rated  as  the  fifth  largest 
industry  in  the  United  States.    All  of  this  vast  investment 
and  business  movement  rests  upon  the  foundation  of  sto- 
ries and  the  selection  of  stories.    The  scenario  editor  is  the 
connecting  link  between  all  the  artistic  and  business  intri- 
cacies that  I  have  mentioned  and  the  source  of  supply  of 
stories,  inclusive  of  well-constructed  photoplays  written 
by  trained  photoplaywrights,  published  novels,  magazine 
stories  and  produced  plays  of  the  speaking  stage,  which 
may  be  adapted  to  the  screen,  and  a  vast  quantity  of  utterly 
worthless  material  coming  from  all  sorts  and  conditions  of 
men  and  women  throughout  the  world.    It  takes  no  highly 
developed  quality  of  perception  to  understand  that  there 
are  valid  reasons  for  the  uneasiness  of  the  editor  in  his 
chair. 

7.  Understand,  this  discourse  is  not  intended  to  build 
a  case  for  myself  nor  for  my  contemporaneous  friends  who 
occupy  positions  similar  to  mine.    I  am  not  seeking  sym- 
pathy, nor  is  my  motive  self-aggrandizement;  I  am  merely 
approaching  definite  consideration  of  the  subject  that  is 
uppermost  in  the  minds  of  everyone  who  has  any  serious 
interest  in  making  or  witnessing  motion  pictures — the 
sources  of  stories  in  the  years  to  come.    Aside  from  the 
essentials  of  life,  such  as  food,  fuel  and  clothing,  no  ques- 
tion of  supply  and  demand  is  more  insistent  than  this. 

8.  The  existence  of  the  Standard  Oil  Company  and 
its  competitors  depends  upon  the  supply  of  crude  petro- 
leum, but  should  this  supply  ever  be  exhausted  science 
would  promptly  and  effectively  discover  something  else  to 
furnish  motive  power  for  automobiles  and  serve  the  many 
other  uses  for  which  this  product  is  now  used.     Should 
the  gold  and  silver  supply  of  the  world  disappear,  some 

5 


other  medium  of  exchange  would  automatically  take  its 
place,  and  so  on  ad  infinitum.  But  motion  pictures  can 
never  be  produced  without  stories,  any  more  than  novels 
and  magazines  can  be  published  without  stories,  or  plays 
shown  on  the  speaking  stage  unless  there  is  a  story  to  tell 
in  each  case. 

9.  The  problem  is  more  urgent  in  the  case  of  motion 
pictures  because  the  output  is  infinitely  greater.    This  in 
turn  is  because  the  life  of  each  motion  picture  is  much 
shorter  than  that  of  the  successful  novel  or  stage  play,  and 
even  than  that  of  the  stories  appearing  in  a  weekly  or 
monthly  publication,  for,  while  the  picture  appears  for  a 
few  weeks  and  then  is  withdrawn,  the  novel  and  stage  play 
frequently  go  on  for  years  and  decades,  and  a  magazine 
may  lie  about  and  be  read  and  reread  indefinitely. 

10.  The  question  of  a  continuous  supply  of  screen 
stories  is  permanent  and  not  temporary,  for  the  screen  play 
is  here  to  remain.    And  do  not  underestimate  my  meaning 
in  the  use  of  the  word  "permanent."    The  motion  picture 
is  not  a  thing  of  this  generation  to  be  forgotten  by  the  next. 
It  is  only  a  quarter  of  a  century  old,  but  mark  you  well,  it 
is  to  endure  for  centuries.    It  is  the  eighth  art,  and  it  will 
remain  and  make  progress  just  as  long  as  we  have  litera- 
ture, music,  drama,  poetry,  sculpture,  painting,  and  archi- 
tecture.   There  is  a  thrill  in  the  thought  that  we  are  living 
at  the  time  of  the  birth  of  this  new  art.    Back  through  the 
mists  of  the  ages  the  others  had  each  its  own  separate 
nativity,  and  each  has  grown  slowly,  laboriously,  but  con- 
tinuously from  its  first  crude  form  to  what  it  is  today. 

11.  Of  all  the  arts,  the  motion  picture  is  the  most  uni- 
versal, the  most  pliable,  and  must  therefore  of  necessity  be 
the  most  prolific.    This  brings  us  directly  back  to  the  sub- 
ject of  this  lecture.    If  the  people  of  the  world  demand  an 

6 


uninterrupted  flow  of  new  motion-picture  productions, 
whence  shall  come  the  stories  from  which  these  produc- 
tions must  be  wrought? 

12.  Let  us,  therefore,  set  about  analyzing  the  situation 
in  order  that  we  may  arrive  at  a  logical  and  definite  con- 
clusion.   Wherever  three  or  four  people  who  are  inter- 
ested in  the  photoplay  are  gathered  together,  one  may  hear 
constant    repetition    of    the    phrases,    "new    art,"    "fifth 
largest  industry,"  "still  in  its  infancy,"  and  other  such 
axiomatic  fragments  which  through  over-familiarity  have 
come  to  sound  exceedingly  trite  and  meaningless.    This  is 
probably  because  the  perfectly  true  statements  are  repeated 
more  or  less  thoughtlessly  and  without  a  sufficiently  com- 
plete comprehension  of  what  they  really  mean,  and  oi 
what  tremendous  facts  lie  behind  them. 

13.  The  photoplay  does  comprise  a  new  art,  and  in 
twenty-five  years  the  handling  of  its  product  has  created 
an  industry  that  is  the  fifth  largest  in  the  United  States, 
in  view  of  the  amount  of  capital  invested  in  all  of  its  com- 
ponent parts,  and  being  only  a  quarter  of  a  century  old,  it 
is  by  all  means  still  in  its  infancy,  with  its  gigantic  possi- 
bilities scarcely  touched.    These  affirmations  are  not  to  be 
uttered  lightly,  nor  to  be  scorned  as  being  bromidic. 
When  the  first  playwrights  of  Greece  were  laying  that 
distant  but  firm  foundation  for  the  drama  of  today,  they 
encountered  far  greater  difficulties,  endured  more  scorn 
and  ridicule,  and  were  in  every  way  greater  martyrs  to 
their  art  than  are  any  of  the  earnest  men  and  women  who 
are  so  sincerely  and  sometimes   thanklessly  striving  to 
make  of  the  photoplay  a  thing  of  permanent  beauty,  enter- 
tainment, education,  and  usefulness. 

7 


14.  The  following,  recently  from  the  pen  of  Rupert 
Hughes,  is  veracious  and  appropriate : 

"Was  not  Aeschylos  driven  from  the  theater  by  an  outraged 
audience  and  put  on  trial  for  sacrilege?  Sophocles  was  refused 
a  production  once,  was  accused  of  base  commercialism,  and  his 
greatest  work,  the  Oedipos,  was  considered  inferior  to  a  play  by 
an  obscure  author.  Aeschylos  and  Sophocles  wrote  each  about  a 
hundred  plays  and  won  prizes  for  only  one  in  six. 

"Euripides  and  Aristophanes  are  among  the  most  solemnly 
regarded  names  in  literature,  yet  the  most  ferocious  critic  of  the 
movies  never  said  anything  worse  of  the  worst  movie  than  Aris- 
tophanes said  of  Euripides,  whom  he  accused  of  every  banality, 
sensationalism  and  plagiarism,  and  of  the  immediate  death  of 
whose  trash  he  was  certain.  And  no  slap-stick  movie  ever  pre- 
sented has  contained  any  coarser,  cheaper,  staler  horseplay  than 
the  antics  that  fill  Aristophanes'  comedies,  to  say  nothing  of  the 
indecencies  that  astound  even  the  least  puritanical  readers. 

"Aristophanes'  characters  tossed  figs  and  nuts  into  the  audi- 
ence to  please  the  groundlings,  and  once  he  asked  the  bald- 
headed  men  to  vote  for  his  play  because  the  author  was  bald, 
too! 

"The  moving  picture  should  be  welcomed  as  a  glorious 
new  language,  a  gift  of  the  generous  gods  which,  like  the  drama, 
painting,  sculpture,  architecture,  verse,  fiction,  and  the  other 
arts,  must  purvey  an  enormous  amount  of  commonplace  material 
to  the  vast  public,  but  incidentally  brings  forth  many  beautiful 
moments  of  passion,  grace,  tenderness,  laughter,  regret,  despair, 
rapture,  and  picturesque  illumination  of  life." 

15.  I  have  quoted  from  Major  Hughes  in  order  that 
we  may  for  the  moment  look  back  through  the  centuries 
to  the  birth  of  spoken  drama  and  the  struggles  and  heart- 
aches of  the  fathers  of  those  plays  which  are  now  rever- 
ently regarded  as  eternal  classics.    Their  difficulties  were 
more  in  the  way  of  getting  the  idea  of  drama  accepted  by 
the  populace  of  Greece,  and  of  obtaining  serious  consid- 
eration for  the  plays  that  they  wrote  and  presented.    Let 
us  then  jump  abruptly  from  those  far-away  times  to  the 

8 


United  States,  the  birthplace  of  the  photoplay,  in  the  year 
1920,  and  give  thoughtful  consideration  to  some  vital  data. 

16.  There  is  an  element  of  banality  in  the  presentation 
of  statistics,  but  I  know  of  no  more  effective  manner  of 
awakening  the  minds  of  the  students  of  the  photoplay  to 
the  point  I  wish  to  make  in  the  present  case. 

17.  In  the  United  States  alone  there  are : 

15,000  regular  theaters  showing  moving  pictures 

12,000  legitimate  theaters  showing  moving  pic- 
tures exclusively. 

160  theaters,  approximately,  showing  pictures 
for  a  full  week. 

2,500  changing  two  or  three  times  each  week. 
75  per  cent  changing  their  program  daily. 
Daily  attendance  at  picture  theaters,  13,000,000. 

Total  income  of  moving-picture  theaters  in  1919, 
$750,000,000: 

There  are  approximately  890  different  chains  of 
moving-picture  theaters  in  the  country. 

18.  It  is  obvious,  in  view  of  these  figures,  that  the 
problem  of  the  producers  of  photoplays  is  not  that  of 
inducing  people  to  accept  their  product,  but  rather  is  the 
quest  for  sufficient  story  material  to  supply  the  perpetual 
and  ever-increasing  demand.    Why  is.the  demand  greater 
than  the  supply?    Let  us  see.    The  photoplay  is  unques- 
tionably a  new  art,  yet  it  inherits  something  from  each  of 
the  other  arts.     Having  grown  from  little  more  than  a 
mechanical  toy  to  the  gigantic  thing  that  it  is  today  in  so 
few  years,  people  have  been  slow  in  realizing  that  the 
photoplay  is  a  separate  form  of  expression,  and  not  merely 
an  interesting  relative  of  literature,  drama,  and  painting, 

9 


for  it  is  to  these  three  of  the  fine  arts  that  the  screen-drama 
is  most  closely  related,  and  to  drama  in  particular. 

19.  What  has  been  the  source  of  the  material  that  has 
been  used  up  to  the  present  time  in  the  production  of 
motion  pictures?    It  is  quite  unnecessary  to  go  into  details 
at  this  time,  for  Mr.  Palmer  has  elaborately  dealt  with  the 
subject  in  Chapter  I  of  the  Handbook.    We  all  know  that 
the  short-length  films  of  the  early  days  portrayed  anything 
in  the  nature  of  a  moving  object,  for  audiences  were  satis- 
fied with  the  novelty  of  movement  in  pictures.    Then  came 
the  little  sequences  of  incidents,  and  when  audiences  ceased 
to  be  satisfied  with  these  began  the  serious  attempt  to  tell 
complete  stories.  Right  at  that  point  was  where  the  photo- 
play ceased  to  be  a  toy  and  started  to  be  an  art,  and  right 
there  all  the  trouble  began,  for  producers,  not  recognizing 
it  as  a  separate  and  independent  means  of  expression,  chose 
to  utilize  it  as  a  vehicle  for  the  adaptation  of  written  liter- 
ature and  spoken  drama.    In  some  cases  such  adaptations 
were  highly  satisfactory,  and  in  others  they  were  much 
more  effective  than  in  their  original  form.    These,  how- 
ever, were  merely  the  exceptions  that  proved  the  rule. 
The  average  novel  is  not  suitable  for  photoplay  produc- 
tion, because  the  novel  is  a  novel  and  the  photoplay  a 
photoplay. 

A' Screen  Drama! 

20.  The  average  drama  of  the  speaking  stage  is  not 
successfully  adaptable  to  the  screen,  because  the  drama  of 
the  stage  is  spoken  and  the  screen  is  a  medium  of  silence. 
This  was  not  recognized  at  first,  and  book  after  book  and 
play  after  play  was  produced  as  a  motion  picture.    Then 
the  thoughtful  people  of  the  new  profession  gradually 
began  to  see  the  light,  as  the  realization  crept  over  them 
that  the  successful  photoplay  must  be  a  photoplay  and 
nothing  else,  always  allowing  for  the  occasional  exceptions 

10 


in  the  way  of  adaptations  which  have  existed,  do  exist,  and 
undoubtedly  shall  exist  indefinitely.  They  saw  that  the 
new  art  involved  a  new  technique  and  consequently  de- 
manded a  new  kind  of  raw  material. 

21.  Thereupon  a  new  difficulty  arose.    Quantities  of 
photoplays  were  necessary,  but  with  the  exception  of  a  lit- 
tle scattering  of  men  and  women  who  had  been  in  close 
contact  with  motion-picture  production,  there  were  no 
photoplaywrights,  so  in  spite  of  the  desire  of  the  producers 
to  obtain  photoplays  written  directly  for  the  screen,  it  was 
found  necessary  to  continue  turning  out  the  hybrids  that 
resulted  from  the  union  of  literature  or  spoken  drama  and 
the  photoplay.    The  bookshelves  of  the  world  were  ran- 
sacked and  the  manuscripts  of  dramas  old  and  new  were 
dug  up  and  rewritten  for  the  screen. 

22.  Meanwhile  producers  were  appealing  to  the  gen- 
eral public  for  stories.    They  held  prize  contests  and  used 
every  available  means  of  encouraging  people  to  write  suit- 
able vehicles  for  screen  production.    These  efforts  were 
occasionally  productive  of  useful  results,  but  to  a  very 
great  extent  they  were  not  in  the  least  so.    The  vast  major- 
ity of  people  who  attempted  to  sell  photoplays  or  to  win 
prizes  in  the  competitions  knew  nothing  of  this  form  of 
expression  nor  how  to  approach  it.     Some  wrote  stories 
that  were  essentially  interesting,  but  that  were  so  greatly 
dependent  upon  dialogue  and  description  that  they  were 
utterly  unavailable.    The  biggest  proportion  flooded  the 
studios  with  manuscripts  containing  mere  disconnected 
sequences  of  incidents,  because  this  was  the  sort  of  thing 
that  they  had  seen  upon  the  screen  in  the  years  gone  by, 
and  they  vaguely  assumed  that  this  was  what  was  wanted. 

23.  As  a  result  of  the  studios  advertising  for  stones, 
every  scenario  editor  was  deluged  with  thousands  of  manu- 
scripts of  every  imaginable  kind,  and  from  all  sorts  and 

11 


conditions  of  people.  The  quantity  of  material  that  came 
flooding  in  was  too  great  in  each  studio  for  any  one  man  to 
handle,  so  each  scenario  editor  was  given  a  staff  of  readers. 
Here  again  was  a  difficulty,  for  while  these  readers  were 
frequently  excellent  judges  of  literature,  they  very  often 
knew  little  of  photoplay  fundamentals.  Even  when  they 
were  thoroughly  competent  in  this  particular,  their  work 
was  discouraging  and  more  or  less  thankless,  for  not  one 
in  a  thousand  of  the  submitted  stories  was  acceptable. 
This  was  true  not  only  of  the  work  of  amateurs,  but  of 
many  writers  whose  reputations  were  established  as  cre- 
ators of  novels,  short  stories  and  newspaper  material. 
They  were  in  exactly  the  same  position  that  the  makers  of 
motion  pictures  were  at  the  start — they  were  unaware  that 
they  were  dealing  with  the  eighth  art,  and  not  one  of  the 
older  forms  of  expression. 

24.  In  some  rare  instances  this  fact  was  realized,  but 
in  spite  of  this  perception  most  of  the  writers  found  them- 
selves unable  to  comprehend  the  fundamentals  of  the 
photoplay  through  lack  of  study,  and  so  merely  tried  in  a 
blundering  way  and  failed.    When  occasionally  a  man  or 
woman  did  succeed  in  writing  story  material  that  was 
directly  acceptable  for  photoplay  production,  he  or  she 
was  commandeered  at  what  was  a  good  salary  in  those 
days  and  given  a  position  on  some  studio  staff.    Some  of 
these  proved  that  they  had  only  two  or  three  stories  in 
their  systems  and  soon  dropped  out  of  sight,  while  others 
made  progress  and  are  today  numbered  among  the  real 
successes  as  writers,  directors  or  producers. 

25.  Still  the  quest  for  stories  continued,  and  whatever 
came  nearest  to  being  acceptable  screen  material  was  pro- 
duced.   Some  of  it  was  excellent  and  some  was  dismally 
inferior.     Then  there  came  a  time  when  even  though 
original  stories,  created  by  photoplaywrights  who  had 

12 


absorbed  a  complete  comprehension  of  screen  values  and 
possessing  high  qualities  of  merit,  were  received,  they 
were  rejected  in  favor  of  recently  successful  novels.or  stage 
plays  because  the  business  men  at  the  head  of  the  various 
companies  saw  prestige  and  financial  success  in  the  free 
advertising  value  of  a  story  or  a  play  that  was  widely 
known  before  it  was  conveyed  to  the  screen.  Sums  far 
greater  than  were  received  for  the  original  work  were 
paid  for  the  screen  rights. 

26.  Emerging  from  these  varying  conditions  came  a 
situation  which  exists  today  and  shall  probably  continue  to 
exist  increasingly  and  permanently.    This  may  be  summed 
up  in  the  brief  statement  that  the  scenario  editor  (using 
the  title  as  a  sweeping  composite)  is  seeking  stories  suit- 
able for  photoplay  production,  regardless  of  whether  they 
are  written  by  famous  authors  or  unknowns,  or  whether 
they  are  adaptations  or  originals.    Time  and  experience 
having  proven  that  adaptations  are  not  successful  in  the 
large  percentage  of  cases,  we  are  aware,  through  a  logical 
process  of  elimination,  that  the  one  great  unquestioned  and 
unceasing  demand  is  for  original  photoplays  written  by 
photoplaywrights  who  are  trained  craftsmen.     The  suc- 
cessful writer  of  any  sort  must  be  a  craftsman,  and  crafts- 
manship is  born  in  no  one.    It  must  be  acquired  through 
intelligent  and  persistent  study  and  practice. 

27.  In  this  brief  space  I  am  not  going  to  discuss  to  any 
extent  whatever  the  methods  and  means  of  photoplay  plot 
construction.     I  am  not  a  teacher.    Most  of  my  waking 
hours  are  now  and  during  the  past  several  years  have  been 
devoted  to  the  work  of  searching  the  world  for  screenable 
stories.    I  do  not  care  who  the  author  may  be,  whether  he 
or  she  is  famous  or  unknown,  nor  does  it  make  any  differ- 
ence to  me  whether  the  story  has  been  published  or  is  an 
original.    What  I  and  the  other  editors,  directors  and  pro- 

13 


ducers  throughout  the  industry  want  is  stories  containing 
screen  values,  and  knowing  as  I  do  that  the  supply  of  pub- 
lished material  can  fill  but  a  very  small  part  of  the 
demand,  the  hope  for  the  great  mass  of  future  material 
lies  largely  with  the  writers  of  original  photoplays — ear- 
nest students  of  the  screen  who  devote  time  and  mental 
concentration  to  the  one  definite  object  of  becoming  crafts- 
men and  of  making  practical  use  of  their  skill  and  knowl- 
edge when  they  have  succeeded  in  doing  so. 

28.  I  marvel  at  what  seems  to  be  the  popular  idea  of 
the  attitude  and  inclination  of  the  average  scenario  editor. 
A  great  many  novices  in  the  writing  game  seem  to  think 
that  he  is  an  unsympathetic  individual  who  delights  in 
rejecting  submitted  stones  and  who  accepts  and  pays  for  a 
manuscript  only  with  the  greatest  reluctance  and  distaste. 
I  wish  such  misguided  and  pessimistic  people  could  wit- 
ness the  almost  hectic  scenes  of  elation  that  take  place 
when  a  purchasable  story  is  received  and  accepted.    An 
acceptable  manuscript  strikes  joy  to  the  heart  of  the 
scenario  editor  to  about  the  same  extent  that  the  color  of 
gold  ore  gladdens  and  enthuses  the  weary  prospector.  The 
editor  is  paid  to  find  stories,  and  the  process  of  rejection 
is  merely  a  negative  necessity  that  results  from  incompe- 
tence, lack  of  study  and  preparation,  inappropriate  mate- 
rial submitted  to  the  wrong  producing  company,  and  other 
similar  reasons.    The  wide-awake  student  must  be  con- 
stantly alert  and  must  study  and  work  just  as  earnestly  and 
intensively  as  though  he  were  learning  to  be  an  architect, 
a  sculptor,  or  a  painter. 

29.  In  considering  the  spoken  drama  we  have  twenty- 
five  hundred  years  of  precedent,  while  in  dealing  with  the 
photoplay  we  are  groping  our  way  across  the  misted 
threshold  of  a  new  art,  and  feeling  our  way  carefully 
through  strange  and  unfamiliar  ways.    It  is  for  this  reason 

14 


that  producers  frequently  change  their  policies  and  that 
the  story  demand  fluctuates  accordingly.  From  the  most 
inexperienced  tyro  to  the  great  masters  of  photoplay  mak- 
ing, inclusive  of  all  and  sundry  who  are  in  any  way 
connected  with  the  creation  and  production  of  motion 
pictures,  we  are  in  a  sense  pioneers,  and  must  therefore 
combat  a  certain  amount  of  uncertainty  in  our  progress. 
The  progress  is  being  made,  however,  surely  and  certainly. 
More  good  pictures  have  been  exhibited  during  the  year 
1920  than  in  any  preceding  year.  As  standards  of  produc- 
tion are  raised,  the  quality  of  thought  and  effort  exerted 
by  photoplaywrights  must  be  increased  to  a  like  degree. 

30.  The  rewards  are  worth  working  for,  though,  and 
will  be  increasingly  so  as  the  years  go  by.    We  shall  even- 
tually have  color  photography  and  the  stereoscopic  effect 
that  will  give  greater  depth  and  naturalness  to  the  pro- 
jected picture.    Many  bright  minds  are  working  on  these 
and  other  problems  of  lesser  importance,  and  in  these 
modern  days  we  have  a  habit  of  solving  anything  that  we 
attack,  no  matter  how  difficult  it  may  be.     Whatever 
improvements  and  advancements  may  be  made,  we  must 
still  depend  upon  the  photoplaywright  for  the  foundation 
stone  of  all  our  efforts. 

31.  I  have  doubtless  reiterated  much  that  you  already 
know,  but  it  is  only  through  reiteration  that  you  may  fully 
realize  and  surmount  the  tremendous  obstacle  of  story 
shortage. 

32.  I  venture  to  say  that  there  is  scarcely  a  studio  in 
the  United  States  now  engaged  in  active  production  that 
would  not  purchase  a  stack  of  original  stones  if  just  the 
right  sort  of  material  could  be  found.    Just  as  rapidly  as 
more  thinking  men  and  women  become  conversant  with 
the  technique  of  photoplay  composition  and  succeed  in 

15 


creating  an  increased  supply  of  screenable  offerings,  there 
will  be  a  corresponding  increase  in  the  number  of  original 
manuscrips  purchased  and  produced,  and  a  like  decrease 
in  the  production  of  previously  published  books  and  mag- 
azine stories.  The  entire  situation  lies  in  the  hands  of 
alert  and  progressive  students  of  the  screen. 

33.  Until  we  have  enough  new  photoplaywrights  and 
new  stories  to  meet  the  demands  of  the  producers,  we  shall 
by  all  means  have  to  go  on  buying  published  material. 
No  class  of  creative  minds  ever  stood  face  to  face  with 
greater  opportunities  for  fame  and  cash  remuneration  than 
does  the  scattering  of  student  photoplaywrights  today. 
There  is  one  vital  fact  that  each  of  these  individuals  should 
grasp  firmly  and  keep  in  plain  view  at  all  times,  and  that 
is  that  salable  photoplays  cannot  be  created  merely  as  a 
result  of  the  desire  to  create,  or  by  superficial  reading  of 
textbooks,  and  hasty,  careless  "dashing  off"  of  manuscripts. 
Each  separate  success  must  be  based  upon  a  firm  and  last- 
ing foundation  of  knowledge  that  can  come  only  through 
hard  study  and  continuous,  practical  work.  If  each  reader 
of  this  lecture  will  carry  away  this  one  salient  thought,  I 
shall  be  satisfied. 


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